La Fabrique des Méduses
By Boris Raux
On View: October 21 – 30, 2022
At IAO Gallery
Taking over the IAO Gallery at the Institute for Art and Olfaction, French artist Boris Raux constructs and presents La Fabrique des Méduses (The Jellyfish Factory). Taking the form of a large-scale wooden structure within which are housed gel-based aromatic objects, the crux of the piece is a tactile performance. In an intimate encounter, the visitor becomes participant through the simple measure of a scalp massage.
Boris Raux acts as caretaker and hairdresser, giving each visitor a shampoo and a rinse. The three liters of water spent on the participant are collected and later jellified, creating an aromatic and intimate impression of the visitor’s embodied self.
As these jellyfish-like objects slowly evaporate, the scent of the participant is released into the space, over time. These ephemeral objects renew the tradition of Vanitas.
Instagram: @lafabriquedesmeduses
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ABOUT BORIS RAUX
Boris Raux is an artist based in St. Etienne, France. After receiving his BA in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins in London, Boris Raux has approached the artmaking process with the methods of a scientific researcher. He maintains a strong desire to dedicate his practice to a better understanding of our world, and he believes scent to be an often overlooked creative and social tool. As such, his work is deeply rooted in scent.
His practice explores four olfactory topics: the common goods, the common bodies, the common places and the common fictions. He intertwines these concepts into The Factories of Commons, a series of performative and sculptural pieces which produce an unusual but highly engaging encounter with another being – human or non-human.
Through his work, Raux elaborates upon what he calls an olfactive chronicle of society. Conscious of the necessary distance art can create with regards to our everyday lives, he nonetheless pulls inspiration from the quotidian. In the banality of everyday existence, he searches for social phenomena that allow us to better understand what surrounds us and what creates us. With self-mockery and humour, Raux creates work that plays with our ambiguities, our paradoxes and finally our very selves: for our maximum pleasure!
Learn more at borisraux.com
ABOUT IAO GALLERY
The Institute for Art and Olfaction’s gallery is devoted to exhibitions, performances, installations and other expressions that make use of or engage with the medium of scent. The space includes a dedicated 154 square foot room within the IAO, and two window galleries that face the pedestrian street, Chung King Road.
Learn more at artandolfaction.com/exhibitions
This exhibition is made possible through the support of Institut Français and Ville de Saint Étienne.
